'They called me the baby whisperer': Meet the midwives birthing a generation of mothers

Midwives are central to our health system, supporting mums from pregnancy to birth. As we celebrate Mother's Day, we talk with trainee and experienced nurses about their challenging, yet rewarding work 

Midwives are not just helping birth babies — they are in a sense birthing a generation of new mothers

Midwives play a central role in a woman’s life, supporting her through pregnancy and the delivery of her baby. But the remit of their role stretches beyond even that. The word midwife means “with woman”, so they are guides, companions, as a woman transitions into motherhood. They are not just helping birth babies — they are in a sense birthing a generation of new mothers.

Ann Leonard who started her midwifery training 30 years ago puts it like this: “We are birthing the new generations. Whoever I meet today, I can help that mother be as confident as possible leaving the hospital. That way she will enjoy her parenting journey, and if you’re enjoying something you’re good at it. What we’re about is giving the best start to women in their life as a mother.”

As we celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend, we pay tribute to midwives for the pivotal part they play in the journey to motherhood.

Here, we talk to four midwives – some at the start of their career and others who’ve gathered experience over decades. We ask each why she became a midwife, what she finds rewarding and challenging, how the pandemic impacted her work and what changes she’d like to see in the maternity services.

‘A midwife inspired me’

• Mel Byrne, a 36-year-old mature student from Kildare, is in her third year of midwifery at TCD. A former GP receptionist with a degree in media production management, she has three children aged 11, seven and five

Mel Byrne, student midwife. Photograph Moya Nolan

“I decided to become a midwife after having my children. A midwife inspired me with the birth of my second child, Isabel. I’d had a difficult birth with my first daughter — she has complex medical needs — and I was nervous going into the next birth. This midwife gave me such a wonderful feeling of power and strength. She let me lead the birth and told me I was in charge, I was in control. I felt I could move mountains. I wanted to give that power back to other women because I know it’s so easily removed.

“What I find most rewarding is the women. People hear ‘midwife’ and think boiling water, towels and you’re just there to catch a baby. Being a midwife is about so much more than the birth. Midwives prepare women for the transition to motherhood. A lot of people assume being a mother starts when you have a baby — it starts when you get pregnant.

“The challenges are usually staffing issues. As students we spend time with community midwives, so we go to homebirths as well. We see the continuity of care, where midwives get all this time with women. In the hospital, midwives give it their all, but it’s so hard without enough staff.

“As students, the pandemic meant we automatically became more involved in the hospital. When women didn’t have support partners with them, we were the people in the room who got to be that. It was a privilege to be the person standing with the woman, supporting her emotional needs, to be there at such a vulnerable moment, making it less vulnerable and more powerful.

“I’d like to see the National Maternity Strategy implemented for more continuity of care. We see the benefit of that when we’re out with the community midwives — all the trust and the bonding. You can’t replace that.”

‘They need emotional support’

• A midwife since 2007, Janet Baby Joseph, 36, is of Indian nationality and works in the pregnancy loss ward in CUMH. Mum to two boys aged nine and seven, she previously worked as a midwife in Koyili Hospital in Kerala State, India

Midwife Janet Baby Joseph at Brookfield Health Science Complex, UCC. Picture: David Keane

“I became a midwife because I love babies. I always thought women building up the new generation needed loads of care, especially at this vulnerable time. Though pregnancy isn’t a disease, they need emotional support.

“It’s rewarding for midwives because even though mothers go through so much pain if the pregnancy is successful there’s a very fruitful ending. The pregnancy loss ward is hard on many midwives. But these mothers and couples need support and care. It doesn’t matter how many weeks they’d gone with the pregnancy, they will have had dreams for the baby. When you lose a baby, the whole family is shattered. You can’t run away from this. Somebody should be there for these mothers and I’m happy to be that person.

“Staff shortages is the most challenging, especially during Covid. We wanted our ward to run efficiently and effectively but we were all getting burned out.

“During the pandemic, the ward I work on became a Covid-19 ward. On top of pregnancy loss and women with gynaecological issues, we had pregnant women with Covid-19, as well as women who’d delivered their babies who had the virus. This went on for two and a half years. Now the pandemic is under control, we’re back to caring just for pregnancy loss and gynaecological patients.

“When I had my babies – I had two C-sections – I could feel each and every thing I had learned. I could now relate to the patient’s pain and discomfort. I breastfed my babies exclusively and I could understand the difficulty a breastfeeding mother goes through. As a mother in the pregnancy loss ward, I know what a mother would have looked forward to, her dreams for her baby.

“Midwives are providing excellent care but if we had more of them each mother and baby would get special attention.”

‘Biggest challenge is not having enough staff’

• Kildare-based Ann Leonard, 53, midwife at The Coombe and a clinical manager, began her midwifery training 30 years ago, having already trained as a general nurse. The mum of four — her children are aged 11 to 16 — went into politics for five years and was appointed to  Seanad Éireann in 1997

Midwife Ann Leonard at the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital, Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

“I went back to midwifery. I love it even more now. I get so much job satisfaction — I never got that buzz in politics.

“It is rewarding that you can make such a difference to the birth experience, the ante-natal and the post-natal experience in preparation for parenthood. Women are very strong people. They can feel so empowered when they have the knowledge and can decide what birthing journey they want and when they achieve that.

“Having a baby is a huge change in someone’s life. Simple things — the bit of empathy, the practical advice, taking the baby for a few minutes to let the mother have a cry, the extra TLC — it’s not very hi-tech but what midwife means is ‘being with woman’. If the woman feels I’ve minded them and I’ve given 100% and they know my name and feel I was their midwife for that day, if they come back in two years time and say ‘I remember you’, that makes it worthwhile.

“The biggest challenge is not having enough staff. It’s an ongoing problem. More people are training as midwives than ever. Some go into it with an airy-fairy idea but you have to really love it — it’s hard work, unsociable hours. Lack of staff means very high patient-staff ratios. A midwife could be looking after 12 mothers and babies overnight on the ward I’m on. We’ve a huge deficit of middle-ranking midwives — people with five to 10 years’ experience often go off to fertility clinics or GP settings.

“With the pandemic, having to wear goggles, gown and masks impinged on communication. The hardest part was in the canteen. That was usually the release time — the long table where you’d chat and cure all the world’s problems in 15 minutes. Going down for coffee and having a glass partition between you and one other person just wasn’t good for morale.

“Having children probably makes you a bit more empathetic. You pick up practical bits of advice over the years, like how you feel from a pelvic floor point of view. If a woman has had a vaginal delivery and has sutures, you’re able to explain exactly what a mother can expect to feel.

“I wish birth wasn’t as medicalised. We have our first advanced midwife practitioners in the hospital now and they’re counselling a whole normality of pregnancy and delivery. Women know their own bodies, they can go through labour and delivery and be great parents – we have to pull it back into nature.”

‘They called me the baby whisperer’

• Blue Scannell is in her third year of midwifery at TCD and has been doing hospital placements at The Coombe. From Santry, she is 21 years old

Blue Scannell trainee midwife at the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital, Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

“I decided to become a midwife because my family is full of females. My mum is a single mother who raised four girls. I’m the youngest. So there are lots of women and we’re all maternal and there are always new baby cousins being born. One of us had to do it — be a midwife. I was always very drawn to babies — they called me the baby whisperer. I can put them to be bed without any trouble. And I love the women. Each woman who comes in, I think how my mum and sisters would like to be treated.

“What I find rewarding is just knowing you’re making a difference to that individual woman’s experience — rubbing her back when she has back pain — women will remember you for something as simple as that.

“The biggest challenge is probably the long hours, although the days do fly. It’s hard in the winter with the dark mornings and evenings — a shift could be from 7.30am-8.30pm. Midwives are so overworked — a lot of days they might miss time off their break.

“Through the pandemic, I watched the whole partner situation where women were quite isolated. I saw women who had a pregnancy
condition and maybe were admitted for 20 weeks having to go to the
coffee shop or the car to meet their other children. Those women were really being tested. They were amazing.

“I’d like to see promotion of midwives. A lot of pregnancy falls into the hands of doctors, which is necessary if there are extra medical needs. But a lot of women are fit and healthy, they’re just having a baby and that’s the midwife’s job. I’d like to see more midwifery-led services in Ireland, more choices for the woman herself.”